News of the threat to the NHS beds was sparked by East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust’s (PCT) confirmation that it is terminating its contract with a private company that runs part of Emberbrook.

To cut the costs of funding the NHS beds, Bettercare Limited have run the beds, a deal which has been axed, in conjunction with their own 42-bed nursing home on the Gigg’s Hill Green site.

The Friends of Thames Ditton Hospital, which helped raise the capital for the building after the cottage hospital was closed by the government in 1985, have refused to take the latest loss of beds lying down.

Fundraising efforts by the group resulted in what the Friends thought would be a 14-bed NHS ward opening in 1999.

However, in less than four years the number of beds available to people in Esher, the Dittons, Hinchley Wood, Claygate and Weston Green for intermediate care has dwindled to six and then four.

Ruth Lyon, member of the Friends executive committee and borough councillor for Thames Ditton, said the loss of the last four NHS beds in the George Tickler Wing would short-change the people of the area in terms of their health provision.

“This is a betrayal of all the promises made when the hospital was opened,” she said.“All other parts of Elmbridge have their own community hospitals.

“Why are the 30,000 people in the Dittons, Weston Green, Esher, Hinchley Wood and Claygate the only ones to be deprived of this basic NHS resource?”

A spokesman for the PCT confirmed to the News & Mail that the Bettercare contract had been terminated and would come to an end in a year.

“We are hopeful of continuing the services we provide at Emberbrook,” the spokesman said.

“We have a local delivery plan and we have to look at the bigger picture but the PCT remains hopeful of being able to use Emberbrook as much as possible.”

Despite these reassurances, Karen Randolph, newly-elected chairman of the Friends, is preparing the group for a fight to save the hospital.

“We will not accept the closure of our community hospital,” she said. “The PCT is turning its back on one of the most modern community hospitals in the region, built to NHS specifications to meet the needs of the 21st century.

To kick start the fight, an open meeting will be held in the Vera Fletcher Hall at 8pm on July 1.

The possible loss of all the NHS beds at Emberbrook comes two months after the Friends were told that the PCT would not fund any extra beds on the site.

After months of lobbying, PCT chief executive Alan Kennedy announced in April that extensive research had revealed that to fund the 10 empty beds at Emberbrook would be 25 per cent more expensive than those in an equivalent NHS hospital.

At the time of Mr Kennedy’s announcement there was no indication that the PCT would not fund the last four NHS beds.